Day 18 - July 15 - Sunday - Cordoba to Barcelona. We traveled on an AVE train across the country (southwest to northeast) reaching speeds of 300 km/hr. The journey took 4½ hours and once again the train was quite full. We arrived at our apartment which is on the 5th (top) floor - NO LIFT – extremely narrow and steep staircase - not recommended. After climbing the stairs a couple of times you hope that when you depart for the day it will be "for the day".

This afternoon, we went walking down the Ramblas and around the port area below. The crowds are amazing - first time we have seen this crush of people since arriving in Spain (except for the Soccer celebrations and gay parade in Madrid). Maybe because it's Sunday afternoon? From here we walked back to the Cathedral stopping at Plaza Real for a drink and a bit of crowd-watching. then wandered up to Plaza Catalunya at the top end of the Ramblas.

The city is full of beautiful buildings all around 5 stories high some with new additions up to 8 (probably when lifts were invented....) which strangely do not reflect the original architecture of the rest of the building.

The weather is quite different here with temperatures just 26 – 27 today and even a light shower of rain this afternoon. It feels cool when the clouds come over but we are finding it very pleasant after our last 2 weeks of hot weather in Madrid and Andalusia..